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Margaret Mead Film Festival
Short Films

  • Margaret Mead: Portrait by a Friend

    Directed by Jean Rouch.
    US, 1977, video, color, 30 min.

This frank and loving portrait of the famed anthropologist was filmed after the first Mead Festival by renowned French enthnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch. Together with John Marshall (N’ai: Story of a !Kung Woman), who served as sound recordist, he follows Mead from her office through the meandering corridors of the American Museum of Natural History and down Central Park West as she considers her legacy and muses about the future.

  • Islands

    Directed by Amiel Courtin-Wilson with Vincent Heimann.
    Australia, 2000, video, color, 26 min.

With a German father, a Samoan mother, and a family based in Australia, the filmmaker ponders the nature of his identity. This multi-sensory video, rich in image, sound, and text, reveals contrasts between the mythical construction of Samoan culture that is filtered through books and films and what it means to be both outsider and insider to "Fa’a Samoa," the Samoan way.

  • Why Pay Two Rents

    Directed by Remy Weber.
    US, 2001, video, color, 28 min.

This endearing film celebrates the fortieth anniversary of Stan Selub and Paul Miller as partners in both business and life. When interviewed together, their cheerful bickering gives the impression of utter contentment, but when each has his moments alone with the camera, insecurities emerge. This film is a moving portrait of a relationship that has seen the advent of the civil rights and the gay rights movements and the transformation of Greenwich Village from a bohemian haven into a commercial center.

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Margaret Mead Film Festival